Natural Family Planning  (NFP)
A Lifetime and Lifegiving  Source of Benefits

• Couple’s fertility awareness
• Woman’s Fertility Care
• Self-Monitoring of gynecologic and reproductive health
• Scientific, medically proven and holistic approach to family planning
• Respects and enhances the spiritual bond of the couple
• In harmony with God’s design for human sexuality
• The least expensive method of birth regulation on the market
• Respectful to our environment

 

Deacon Elias Yepes is the Natural Family Planning Coordinator for the Family Life/Respect Life Office.  Dcn. Yepes can be reached at (718) 229-8001 ext. 340

N F P   Resources

American Academy of  NFP  (AANFP)  www.aanfp.org  1-775-827-5408

Billings Ovulation Method Association (BOMA) www.boma-usa.org 1-651-699-8139  

The Couple to Couple League (CCL) www.ccli.org    1-513-471-2000

Creighton Model FertilityCare ® Services www.popepaulvi.com 1-402-390.6600 www.creightonmodel.com

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is Natural Family Planning? Is it another form of the Rythm method?

Natural Family Planning is an umbrella term for modern, scientifically accurate, healthy and reliable methods of birth regulation. NFP differs from the “Rhythm, or Calendar” method, which dates back more than 50 years! In practice, rhythm had been proven often inaccurate because it was based on the mistake that all women’s cycles were the same. The modern methods of NFP do NOT depend on having regular menstrual cycles; they treat each woman and each cycle as unique. NFP works with menstrual cycles of any length and any degree of irregularity. It can be used during breastfeeding, just before menopause, and in other special circumstances. NFP allows the woman, and her husband, to understand the physical signals her body shows when she is fertile and when she is not. Once the couple understands this information, the method can be used to avoid or to achieve pregnancy.

What’s the difference between the use of NFP and contraception?

With NFP a couple gives attention to and cooperates with the natural procreative system. Husband and wife learn about their combined fertility and, as opposed to most forms of  ontraception, they fully share responsibility on planning their family. NFP is morally acceptable, because it respects the natural and supernatural vocation of the human person: responsible parenthood is lived out within the structures which God has established in human nature. The nature of sexual intercourse reflects a Divine plan: it is both love-giving (unitive) and life-giving (procreative). That is why the Catholic Church teaches that couples must not actively intervene to separate their fertility from their physical union. To do so is to show disrespect for an important gift of the Creator.

Is NFP complicated to learn?

There are different methods of NFP. All can be learned easily by motivated couples. The Diocese of Brooklyn is making every effort to provide couples with competent teachers and to extend services for NFP users.

Is NFP as reliable as a contraceptive method when used to avoid pregnancy?

* Yes. When couples are taught by competent teachers, understand the method, and are motivated to use it properly, NFP is highly effective.*Contrary to the general belief, birth, control pills, intra-uterine devices and pharmaceutical products such as “morning after” pills, RU-486, Depo-Provera and Norplant are not always contraceptive. They are programmed to act after conception has occurred. They, in fact, often cause early abortions by making implantation impossible. Only methods used to prevent conception are contraceptive by definition. Those methods are artificial barriers such as condoms, diaphragms, and spermicides, which have a much lower rate of effectiveness than NFP.

Is NFP safe?

*NFP is totally natural as opposed to the more common suppressive or destructive approaches of contraceptive methods. There are no pills to take, no devices to use, no hormones to inject. Not only is NFP safe, but it helps to maintain reproductive health because NFP empowers the woman to understand her body better. It is also a tool to monitor her gynecologic and procreative health.

Periodic abstinence… wouldn’t our relationship suffer from it?

Using NFP requires abstinence from sexual intercourse, and sexual contact, at certain days of the woman’s menstrual cycle; this means an average of 6 to 12 days per menstrual cycle, depending on the fertility signs of the woman, the length of her cycle, and the method. These times of sexual abstinence do not mean abstinence from expressing love. In fact, the use of NFP encourages couples to explore ways to express their love to one another because sexual intercourse is not always available. Also, by communicating about their fertility and their sexuality, couples deepen their relationship. Neither spouse is therefore “taken for granted”. Understanding of each other, responsibility and respect toward self and the other help the marital bond to grow and deepen.

* Source: “Facts about NFP”,  American Association of NFP

 

The Different NFP Methods
And Where To Learn Them

The Billings Ovulation Method            
Information: Martin & Jeannette: (718) 846-9219
Developed by Australian physicians Drs. Evelyn & John Billings.  This is a natural method of fertility wareness which helps couples understand the woman‘s natural patterns of infertility and fertility periods within each cycle, based on the changes of the cervical mucus. Knowing these changes, the couple is able to use the method to avoid, postpone or achieve pregnancy, at any period of the woman’s reproductive years. This method has a 67% rate of success per cycle when used to achieve pregnancy, and a 97-99% rate of  effectiveness when used to avoid pregnancy. The course includes twogroup sessions and as many individualized follow-ups as needed by users. 

 

The Creighton Model FertilityCare® Services   
Information and appointments:   Dorothy Dugandzic (914) 476-4858
Developed by Thomas W. Hilgers, MD. The Creighton Model FertilityCare® System is a new, unique model of advanced procreative education. It relies upon the observation of biological markers to find periods of fertility and infertility. These same markers telegraph abnormalities in a woman’s health. They are the hub of the new  reproductive science of NaProTECHNOLOGY®. This is a science that allows a woman to monitor and maintain her gynecologic and procreative health. This method has a rate of success of 75% per cycle when used to achieve pregnancy, and 99.5% when used to avoid pregnancy.  Individualized sessions only.

The Sympto-Thermal Method (STM)
Information: Rick & Janet: (516) 764-1147   RC1210@msn.com    
Developed by Josef Roetzer, MD. The STM is a reliable means of birth regulation detecting and using the natural and healthy symptoms the woman’s body shows during the normal menstrual cycle: the cervical mucus changes, the position of the cervix and the basal body temperature. These changes will show the couple the infertile and fertile periods each menstrual cycle contains. It is a great tool to monitor the woman’s procreative health. This method has a rate of 98-99.5% of success in avoiding, postponing as well as in achieving pregnancy. The course includes three group sessions and as many individualized follow-ups by phone as needed by users.

CLASSES FOR ALL METHODS ARE HELD ON AN ON-GOING BASIS.

CALL INSTRUCTORS FOR SCHEDULE.